Well, if the rumors are true, then Tomlin was going to bring MA back last year and give him about six weeks before having Jack commit suicide. Coincidentally, it's been about six weeks since Tomlin's stuff started airing this time, and he's gearing up for Nicole to be pushed to the point of suicide. So basically, he's still re-hashing the storylines and plans he had a year ago. As for Tomlin bothering to try to redeem Jennifer, clearly, this current storyline shows he's not really interested in that. She looks worse than ever now --- weaker, more hypocritical, and more sanctimonious.

As many have pointed out, Tomlin could have moved Jack into his own storyline and still put his beloved Dannifer back together. As for screentime, even Bope and Jarlena aren't on every week and they've still been on the show. MA could have been dropped to recurring like WK and JE and we'd still have gotten some decent Jack scenes (there are no real storylines on this show anymore -- just loosely connected scenes.)